RIO DE JANEIRO, Oct. 4 (Xinhua) -- Brazil is gearing up for one of its most closely watched general elections in years.
The Ministry of Public Safety launched a nationwide security operation to ensure Sunday's election process for a new president, governors and lawmakers goes smoothly.
Brazil's Integrated Command and Control Center, a security mechanism that began operating in 2013 when the country hosted the FIFA Confederations Cup, is in charge of coordinating the security efforts.
Public Safety Minister Raul Jungmann kicked off the nationwide security operation earlier Thursday in a videoconference call with representatives of the control center in different regions.
The operation will ensure Brazilians can vote with "tranquility, peace and respect," Jungmann told reporters, downplaying concerns of heightened tension.
"Every election has its level of tension, but we expect each person to make their choice of representatives and respect the right and will of others to also choose their representatives. That is democracy," said Jungmann.
The operation will continue through Oct. 8, the Monday after the vote, and run again from Oct. 22 to 29, for the expected Oct. 28 runoff if none of the 13 presidential candidates could secure more than 50 percent of vote in the first round.
This year's presidential race has generated more anticipation than usual, being the first since former President Dilma Rousseff of the left-leaning Workers' Party (PT), was impeached in 2016.
Rousseff was removed from office in a controversial impeachment process that brought her vice president, Michel Temer of the center-right Brazilian Democratic Movement, to power and saw public policy take a decidedly right turn.
With the populist Jair Bolsonaro in the running, these elections mark the first time in seven presidential elections that the contest is not between the PT and the Brazilian Social Democracy Party (PSDB).
PT candidate Fernando Haddad is currently ranked second in the polls. Geraldo Alckmin, the candidate of the PSDB, which ruled over Brazil from 1995 to 2002 and lost in 2014 by the narrowest margin in Brazil's election history, is trailing in fourth place.
Bolsonaro, a longtime federal legislator who has hopped from party to party in recent decades, is a newcomer to the presidential race, but has succeeded in tapping into the public's widespread discontent with the status quo and corruption, and now threatens to disrupt the PT's long winning streak: the party won the presidency in 2002, 2006, 2010 and 2014.
Haddad, a former education minister, appears likeable but arrived late to the race, replacing the PT's initial candidate, former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, after he was disqualified due to a corruption conviction.
In an interview with Brazil's official news agency on Thursday, Temer called on voters to protect Brazil's democratic system and 1988 Constitution, which he helped draft.
"We need to be careful not to have setbacks, avoid going backwards," said Temer, adding "I believe we have a solid democracy."
Regarding the challenges the new president will face, Temer emphasized the necessity to move forward with constitutional reforms and shrink the public deficit through pension reform.
The 24,000-strong security personnel deployed on Thursday include members of the armed forces and the National Security Force; municipal, state and federal police officers; firefighters; traffic police and agents of the Brazilian Intelligence Agency.
Voting in Brazil has been 100 percent electronic since 2002. The security personnel will be in charge of transporting and distributing the electronic ballots.
A total of 147,306,275 citizens are expected to vote in 5,570 towns all over the country and 170 embassies and consulates abroad.
Brazilians will choose a new president, 27 state governors, 54 senators, 513 federal representatives and 1,059 state representatives in the elections.
Brazilians registered to vote abroad can only vote for president.
